“Soup-to-Go” -We made the news!

 Free soup days are back at Methodist church in town of Oneonta

By Lauren Takores Staff Writer – The Daily Star                  Jan 23, 2024 Updated Jan 23, 2024
 

Soup’s on at the Elm Park United Methodist Church with the return of the Soup To Go program.

The weekly soup giveaway has started up again after being on hiatus since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s here, we want people to come and get it,” program co-coordinator Maggie Morrison said Tuesday, Jan. 23

The volunteer crew plans to serve a free meal of soup, bread or crackers and fruit 4-5 p.m. every Tuesday through March 19 at the church, 401 Chestnut St. in the town of Oneonta.

Soup To Go coordinator Teresa Wood, who has been running the program since 2018, said Tuesday that anyone is welcome to the soup, regardless of age, income or socio-economic status.

The meal is to-go only — no dining in or deliveries. Some people leave donations, but there’s no requirement for donations.

The soup, about 150 servings, is prepared from scratch the Monday before and distributed in recloseable plastic bags.

The type of soup changes every week — this week it was beef barley, last week it was chicken noodle vegetable.

Wood said that most of the food comes from donations from congregation members, except for the meat which is purchased as well as whatever doesn’t get donated using money from the church budget and monetary donations.

Co-coordinator Maggie Morrison said that people can take as many servings as they want, she said — some people stock up for the week, some bring the soup to others in need, including the warming station up the road.

“The only thing we ask is how many people, because we’d like to keep a track of how many people are being served,” Morrison said.

She said that before the pandemic, the free soup meal was very popular.

“We had going on for years, people coming in in droves, “ she said. “But then we stopped, so they’re not really aware that it’s up and running.”

The soups are made from fresh vegetables with no salt added, prepared in five huge pots on the church kitchen stove.

“We prepare the soup,” she said, “and then we cool it down to the proper temperature and then get it in the refrigerator, and then today we bag it and distribute it.”

The church-affiliated volunteers come from Elm Park and Otego United Methodist Church, while some volunteers come from the neighborhood.

“One of the things that drove us this year especially to get it back going was [that] The Lord’s Table was down to three days a week for a while,” Morrison said about the free meal and food pantry in the city of Oneonta.

She added that while they keep track of the number of meals served, they don’t track who takes the food, although she has seen a change in the area with the increased number of homeless people.

“We try to make it as healthy as possible and a different one every week,” she said.

For more information, visit www.elmparkumconeonta.org or Elm Park UMC on Facebook.